head to head · open source
Jan vs catai
Jan has 44,566 GitHub stars, 3,040 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped yesterday. catai has 500 stars, 39 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Jan leads on adoption by 8,813% (44,566 vs 500 stars). Jan is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; catai is written in TypeScript under MIT. Jan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, catai 8%. Jan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chatgpt, llm), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Jan | catai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 500 |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2025-11-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 39 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Jan if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick catai if
- You want the catai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and catai fits your workflow better
About Jan
Jan is an open source desktop application that serves as a ChatGPT replacement, enabling users to run large language models (LLMs) locally on their machines or connect to cloud based providers like OpenAI and Anthropic. It is built with Tauri, TypeScript, and integrates llama.cpp for efficient local inference, targeting privacy conscious users who want full control over their AI workflows without sending data to third parties.
About catai
catai is an MIT licensed TypeScript command line tool that runs GGUF language models on your own computer and serves them through a chat interface and a small Node.js API, built for developers who want a private AI assistant without a hosted service.
read the full catai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jan or catai more popular?
Jan has 44,566 GitHub stars and catai has 500. Jan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jan and catai free?
Both are open source. Jan has no licence declared in this registry, and catai is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jan and catai?
Jan is written in TypeScript and catai in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Jan or catai?
Choose Jan if you want the larger community (44,566 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose catai if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.